Triggers & Automation

Triggers watch your terminal output for patterns and fire actions automatically. Claude Code tracking has moved to hooks, but the trigger engine is fully available for your own custom automation.

How Triggers Work

1. Terminal output is stripped of ANSI escape codes
2. Output is buffered per-tab (with TUI redraw detection)
3. Regex patterns are tested against the buffer
4. Matching text fires configured actions
5. Matched text is consumed from the buffer

Match Modes

• Regex — full regular expression matching (default)
• Plain text — simple substring matching
• Variable condition — evaluates expressions using captured variables

Variable Conditions

Expression parser supporting complex conditions:

sessionId && !resumed
status == "waiting"
a || b && c
x != "done"

Operators: &&, ||, !, ==, !=

Actions

Action	Description
notify	Send a notification (toast or OS notification)
send_command	Write a command to the PTY
enable_auto_resume	Enable auto-resume for the tab
replay_auto_resume	Re-send the stored auto-resume command to the PTY
set_tab_state	Set the tab’s state indicator

Variables

Capture groups in regex patterns can be mapped to named variables:

• Variables are persisted per-tab in trigger_variables
• Referenced with %varName syntax
• Used in tab titles, auto-resume commands, notification messages
• Cloned when duplicating tabs

Use Cases

With Claude Code tracking now handled by hooks, triggers are best used for your own custom automation:

• Watch for build failures and send a notification
• Detect SSH disconnects and auto-reconnect
• Capture environment variables from command output
• Fire a command when a deploy prompt appears
• Set tab state indicators based on output patterns

Tab-Level Scoping

Triggers can be scoped to specific tabs for per-tab pattern matching. This lets you set up different automation for different contexts — one trigger watching for build failures in your dev tab, another watching for deploy prompts in your staging tab — without them interfering with each other.

Notifications

Triggers can fire notifications through aiTerm’s three-mode notification system:

• Auto (default) — in-app toasts when window is focused, OS notifications when not
• In-app — always show in-app toasts
• Native — always use OS notifications
• Disabled — no notifications

Notifications support deep-linking — clicking a toast or OS notification navigates to the source workspace and tab. Sound alerts are configurable with volume control.